*In the second bout of the evening, Zephyr 112-pounder Mark Schlittler pinned the Canaries' Wes Mora in 5:59. Matter of fact, referee Mike Bateman's hand hit the Resolite at the exact instant the buzzer sounded.

Had Schlittler not slipped in the six-point (team) pin in time, he'd have won 9-1, for a four-point major decision. A little arithmetic reveals the meet would've ended in a 30-30 tie.

*The home team played "Beat the Clock" at 145. In that match -- probably the most action-packed and entertaining of the evening -- the Canaries' Bob Rice managed to drag down the Zephs' Bob Bauder with 10 seconds left to pull out an 11-9 victory and keep his club ahead, 22-15.

*Two bouts later, after Scott Strongowski's tougher-than-anticipated 7-5 decision over John Mickley pulled Whitehall three points closer (22-18), Zephyr 160-pounder Rich Boyer came around for a reversal with just nine ticks left on the clock to salvage a 5-5 draw with Canary Andy Jenkins. All that, incidentally, after having surrendered what looked to be a deciding takedown to Jenkins with 22 seconds left.

"Whew!" said a relieved Zephyr mentor, Ed Kutz. "I didn't figure Bobby Rice to beat Bobby Bauder. Bauder's a pretty tough kid. But, like just about everybody else, I guess, he's been fighting the flu. Same thing with Scott (Strongowski). If he'd have been healthy, I think he'd have gotten bonus points."

"Sure, the difference were those bouts that were decided in the last couple seconds," Trexler said. "But I'm not gonna put the load on just one or two kids. You're never happy with a loss, but, to be honest with you, I was that close that late. But then we knew we'd probably give up 12 points at 171 and 189."

The Canaries did. At 171, Zephyr star Steve Petzuk returned from the injury (knee) list and came through with a pin of Tim Dunning, who was making his varsity debut, in 1:29. That put Whitehall in front 26-24 and -- since it was known in advance that the Zephyrs' Doug McLaughlin would win by forfeit at 189 -- clinched the victory no matter what happened at heavyweight.

Good thing, too, as far as Whitehall was concerned, because Allen's tough Victor Burton did exactly what he was expected to do: he packed inexperienced Jeff Kolb in 2:24 to set the final two-point margin.

Whitehall is a vastly improved wrestling team this year, with a half dozen outstanding performers who are certain to be among the best in the area at their weights. In that sense they closely resemble Tom Heilman's Wilson club. But, as is also the case with Wilson, the Zephs do have several glaring holes. Whitehall should be able to score in the vicinity of 30 points against just about anyone. But so should the opponents.

"There's no question," Kutz said, "we figure to be a much better tournament team than we are in dual meets. But I do feel we have enough ammunition to give it a good go with anybody."

Kutz will get an opportunity to test that theory very soon; the Zephyrs will be in Phillipsburg tomorrow to tackle the always-powerful Stateliners at The Pit.

"We're looking forward to the challenge," Kutz said. "As was the case tonight against Allen, for us to have any chance at all, we simply must win at least two bouts between 103 and 135."

They'll be favored in exactly one of those six.

Doug Bonshak (2:37 over Tony Greitzer at 140) also registered a fall for Whitehall last night, as did the Canaries' Dan Wagner (4:24 over Mike Woodling at 119) and James Reimert (4:45 over Nick Demjan at 135). Allen also got a major decision out of 125-pounder Pete Schemm (12-0 over John Pasquariello).